


How funny life can be

by Tezca



Category: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), The Frontier Boys
Genre: Family Reunions, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-15
Updated: 2014-10-15
Packaged: 2018-02-21 07:50:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2460572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tezca/pseuds/Tezca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Oh right, the Lockhart/Bracken family reunion….yeah it was bunch of bullshit, biggest fu..damn mistake I ever made in going. I didn’t even wanted to go in the first place.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	How funny life can be

**Author's Note:**

> I had a cracky headcanon that Kevin Bracken from the movie The Frontier Boys and Harry Lockhart from KKBB are first cousins and figured why not write a crossover fic lol.

_“Hello is this thing on, is this rolling? Ok good, hello readers glad you can come to the party again. I'm Harry Lockhart as you should all know by now, yeah yeah you all probably signing in disappointment and shit, thinking “Oh shit is it him again? The fucking ameteur narrator from before who keeps fucking it up,”_

_“Uncle, sorry for interrupting, but you know how dad is about using the f word around here.”_

_“Oh right sorry Jed, that was my nephew by the way...actually he’s not really my nephew and I’m not his actual uncle, but he calls me that, namely because I’m older and I act like one to him. All of his actual uncles lives in bumfuck Australia.”_

_“Uncle!”_

_“Oh right, sorry I keep forgetting your dad is big on the no swearing around the house thing…..can I say shit or damn?”_

_“Yeah fine with me if you don’t overuse it like the kids to at my school Uncle Harry.”_

_“Alright fair enough….now where was I?”_

_“You were introducing the story to the readers about the recent family reunion we all went too.”_

_“Oh right, the Lockhart/Bracken family reunion….yeah it was bunch of bullshit, biggest fu..damn mistake I ever made in going. I didn’t even wanted to go in the first place.”_

_“I didn’t think it was that bad. And In case you’re wondering how we are related, he is my dad’s first cousin. His mom and my grandpa are siblings. I will also be your co-narrator, Jed Bracken by the way.”_

_“Kevin and his family the only relatives I have outside of my mom that actually gives two shits about me. As you can infer from this, he’s my favorite cousin. He doesn’t get into drunken rants about how he should’ve left my mother when he had the damn chance for some blondie prostitute half his age.”_

_“His family dynamics aren’t exactly...stellar.”_

_“Yeah, if Jed pardons me from using the F word in this case, Kevin got the less fucked end of the family stick. He doesn't have any issues, me on the other hand, try growing up in a household where its clear dear old dad prefers your wonderful, perfect, older straight A brother over the younger schmuck who barely passed high school and got repeatedly told I won’t amount to anything in life. I blame Perry and your dad for making me go.”_

“Hello Harry,” Kevin greeted with a smile one summer day after he opened the door to find his cousin standing in front of him with the invitation in his hand. Harry had initially didn’t want to go and made no plans to leave Los Angeles, but Perry urged him to go and even highly recommended it. Not because he was of those sappy wholesome family types, but because on account he had a major case come up and he didn’t want Harry to fuck it up like usual. He finally relented after hearing Perry berate him for being a dumbshit who shouldn’t be alive by now for the millionth time, “I trust you got here just fine from LA?”

“Yeah, blame Perry for making me go to this this family get together crap.” He said as he walked inside with his bags and Kevin closed the door behind him. 

“Harry, it’ll be fun. You’ll see all of your relatives that you haven’t seen in years!” Kevin said as he started to lead Harry to the guest room.

“Precisely why I don’t want to go,” Harry replied, setting his suitcase and bag down on the bed before he faced Kevin, “I want to keep it that way. You Kevin are the exception ”

Kevin nodded as that was pretty much true, he was one of the few relatives that Harry puts an effort in keeping in touch with, “Well your friend Perry seems to be on the same train of thought here…”

“No he isn’t trust me, he just wanted me to be out of the way so I don’t fuck up another case of his,” Harry said as he grabbed a cigarette out of the box of Marlboros he bought on the way to the house,“He can be an asshole Kev, like this for example, sentencing me to a new brand of torture.” Harry finished as he offered a smoke to Kevin, who took the offer as he faced Harry and gave him a look.

“I’ll bet your have a change of attitude once we get there.” Kevin said as the two went to go back outside where they lit up and took a drag before they continued their conversation.

“Unlikely and aren’t you forgetting my dad is going to be there? My dad who isn’t too fond of you either for whatever shitty reason?” 

“Yeah, but I’m still going to have a good time, I’m not gonna let your dad bring us both down.”

“Well, if you were smart then you won’t subject you or your family to a pointless family reunion full of people that might as well be handpicked out of a fucking Lifetime movie.”

“You’re coming Harry, I'm gonna do as you so claimed to be and sentence you to one week of having fun with family at the Bracken farmhouse.” Kevin said before taking another drag just as the two saw a car coming up the driveway.

“So that’s a no on the staying here and housesit your place for a week?” Harry questioned which earned him a look from the taller man as Judy and Jed got out of the car and walked up to greet them.

“Kevin is smoking so that must mean...Harry how are you?” Judy observed teasingly with Jed before greeting Harry with a hug.

“Doing relatively fine Mrs. Bracken.” Harry responded with a friendly smile as Judy then hugged and gave Kevin a kiss on the cheek.

“Hey Uncle Harry, so this means you’re coming along then?” Jed asked after giving a hug of his own to Harry.

“Yeah unfortunately.” Harry said in a dry, void of enthusiastic tone of voice. It was pretty much well known among the small Bracken household there that Harry didn’t exactly grew up in the best of households. It was Kevin(however weird that sounds to him since he and Kevin are only a few years apart) that has always acted more like a father to him than his actual dad ever has. 

“Look at it this way, my dad is coming along.”

“That is true, though I don’t know how he can take the fact that my dad doesn’t like either of us for dumb reasons and still think family reunions are fun times to be had,” Harry sarcastically said, rolling his eyes at the end before asking in general, “When are we leaving?”

“That’s cause I happen to think they are and early tomorrow morning if we want to get there the day before the festivities start.” Kevin said, Harry inwardly groaning at his use of the word festivities to describe what he feels it will be one long week of conversing awkwardly with most of the relatives whom he either doesn’t know that well or doesn’t really care to see.ever again.

“We’re going on a road trip?” Harry asked Kevin grateful that at least his cousin isn’t prone to making snarky jabs at his expense that tended to be peppered around his answers to questions like that.

“Yes we are,” Kevin replied with a happy smile and an arm around Harry and Judy as they walked back inside of the house, “I thought it would be great fun, plus driving would be overall less expensive right now.”

“I want to see more of the beautiful American countryside anyways.” Judy chimed in as she smiled at Kevin and Harry gave her an unbelieving look.”

“What? You don’t think your own country’s countryside is pretty amazing to look at?” Judy gave him a look and Harry stammered for a second.

“I do, I”ll just be straight with you, the countryside at this part of America is just miles and miles of boring fields of crops and you’ll just end up falling asleep faster than you can say holy shit how much did I drink last night?” Harry quipped which made Judy giggled lightly as they went to the kitchen where Kevin started to get dinner ready.

“We have those in Australia too, still pretty to look at and watch them pass on by as you drive along. I know Kevin likes to see the fields and every passing farms.” 

“That’s to be expected, unlike us the guy grew up on a fucking….”

“Harold! Remember the don’t drop the f word rule we have here?” Kevin scolded in a soft, but firm tone. Harry knew Kevin and his family were more religious than he was and vice versa so that meant they weren’t exactly too big on using the more harsher swear words such as fuck or dick and the like. He does respect his views as Kevin respected his, they were the kind of people to respect other people believes and views. it was just Harry tended to forget the no dropping f bombs in the house rule sometimes.

Harry let out a sigh and nodded yes before trying again, “Kevin grew up on a farm which neither of us can lay claim too.”

“You’re right, but I fell in love with seeing the countryside when I was a young girl, and especially after I met Kevin.”

“Yeah get him on the topic of farms and he’ll have something to talk about for the next 4 hours.” Harry quipped lightly, causing the other two to let out a laugh.

“I found that on the second date.” Judy added with her own quip which made Kevin laugh some more.

“Guilty as charged,” Kevin said as he prepared dinner with Judy and Harry helping him out, “You two aren’t exempt from going on for hours on one subject, Harry tends to ramble on about magician stuff…”

“He’s right.” Harry affirmed as he got out the plates and forks.

“And you my beautiful wife, anything that has to do with Sydney, Australia.” Kevin teased with a smile.

The three continued to set up dinner which didn’t take too long, Jed was browsing around on his laptop up in room for the time being before he came down just in time for dinner. Harry was putting the plate full of food on the table and soon they were all sitting down in their chairs. He was about to take his first when he saw the other three holding hands and Jed and Judy with an expectant look on their face to take their hand.

Harry looked at them with a confused look on his face for a second before realizing what they wanted to do before they start eating, which was they wanted to say grace. He obviously didn’t have any problems with it, why would he? He may not say do grace or go to church like the Bracken family does and half the people in the midwest as much, but he would always try and show respect as much as possible(and also grateful that Kevin and his family wasn’t the annoying, holier than thou type).

“You say grace before every meal?” Harry asked as he joined hands and faced Kevin.

“Not every meal, only on the important holidays, but we thought we’ll say grace for the upcoming journey to West Virginia,” Kevin replied before pausing for a second, “Why don’t you say grace?”

“Wait hold on me?! Why?....Kevin the last time I did it was also the last time you, me and my brother went to spend Thanksgiving at my parents house in 1992 and I felt...awkward…like I never quite knew exactly what to say.

“Because you’re the guest of honor and I thought you just did fine back then….” Kevin reassured him as Harry kept rambling on a bit.

“...and plus there was the lovely feeling of embarrassment to be had for the whole entire family because dad decided to drink ten shots of vodka and pass out shitfaced right there at the dinner table right when we all sat down and mom continued on like it was nothing.” Harry recalled while Judy laughed embarrassingly and awkwardly of the situation back then, she and Kevin had just recently been engaged to each other and his aunt and uncle had invited them to spend Thanksgiving with them. At the time H

“You’ll do fine Harry, there’s no time limit on this, this isn’t high school speech class.” Kevin joked with a small laugh.

Harry smiled truthfully at that, “Yeah thank god…” Harry muttered under his breath before thinking for a second, “Uhh...please help us survive this pointless…”

“Harry…” Kevin injected, casting him a look.

“Wonderful trip…” Harry said with the most sarcastic look he could muster as he glanced at Kevin, “With our...uhh..limbs and sanity intact.” Harry finished before they all finally began eating.

The rest of the evening went smoothly as they all decided to watch a movie together before heading to bed to rest up for the long trip to Kevin’s old childhood home. The next morning promptly at 5 am, Harry was woken up by Kevin shouting at him to start packing, “What the fuck...its fucking ass o’clock....” He protested as he looked at his cousin standing in the doorway, still feeling like going back to sleep.

“Its time to get up and moving, we have to be on the road by 6 if we want to get there on time.” Kevin explained before going to wake up Jed. Harry just planted his face in the pillow and let out a bit of an annoyed sound. He wasn’t really looking forward to this trip still, but he’ll try and have a good time overall, after all his favorite cousin was coming along so that already made things more bearable for him.

Harry got up a minute or two later, got ready and soon found himself in the back seat with Jed as they started down the road towards West Virginia. They all spend most of the first hour in either comfortable silence or resting some more as Harry and Jed were doing in the backseat. Harry finally woke up about a hour later to noticed that they were in the next town over and getting breakfast from McDonalds. It was when they were on the road again a conversation of some sort started via Jed noticing Harry’s left hand.

“What happened to your hand?” Jed asked curiously, causing Harry to look at at his hand for a second before he faced him.

“Oh..umm long story, but Harmony cut it off by accident a few years ago.” He simply said, it felt too early to him to be remembering the case he got dragged into after arriving in Los Angeles and all the fucked up details surrounding,

“Ouch, that must’ve hurt.”

“Oh yeah it did, hurted like hell. First two days in LA and I already had myself in deep shit when it happened…”

“Oh.”

“Speaking of Harmony, how is she anyways?” Kevin asked a second later as he kept his eyes on the road while listening at the same time. Judy was busy reading a novel in the front seat while finishing her breakfast.

“Doing fine, me and her have been dating for some time, I think I told you that, and she would’ve come along too if it wasn’t for the fact I haven’t talked to my parents for years so they don’t know she exists.”

“Well maybe the family reunion would be the perfect time to start up the relationship again and talk to them. I know I’m going to talk to your father.”

“Ha, yeah like that going to go well…” Harry replied in a bit of a snarky tone, “Your uncle a stubborn ass Kevin.”

“That may be Harry, but you have to remember time changes people, they grow and learn from their mistakes they have made in the past. The last time I talked to my uncle was in the early 2000s, but I feel optimistic that God gave us this opportunity to work things out with him and we’ll both leave feeling like we finally have his love for his son and nephew.”

Harry just looked out the window and made a bit of a disapproving noise before he looked at Kevin’s direction again. Harry can see where he was coming from, but after years of being made to feel like shit by his own father kinda made it hard for him to believe that nothing but old wounds reopening will happen. For both him and Kevin, 

“Perry would call you a naive moron if he heard you at this moment.”

“Honey I get what you are saying, but I get where Harry is coming from I mean….do you remember at all what he said about me and my family at our wedding?” Judy said as she looked at Kevin who closed his eyes a couple of seconds later as it not only dawns on him, but on Harry as well. The two, as well as Judy, would be living happily if they went the rest of their lives without remembering Harry’s dad’s drunken rant at the reception.

“Oh shit, I completely forgot about that...” Kevin admitted softly as he looked out at the road ahead of him, really not wanting to remember. Harry meanwhile mimic Kevin’s reaction and laid his head up against the side of the car.

“What...happened at the wedding?” Jed asked after a few seconds passed in a somewhat awkward atmosphere.

“My dad acted like a piece of shit to Judy and her family because of her nationality and just pretty much made a fucking embarrassment of himself. I defended your mother of course and so did your dad, who ended up giving him a well deserved punch.”

“I ended up breaking his nose and that son is one of the rare few times I ever had to punch someone.” Kevin added.

Wow! I'm sorry that happened mom.” Jed said, apologetically. He knew he wasn’t there to witness it as the wedding took place a year before he was born, but still he felt bad that anyone would say anything hurtful to his own mother. He doesn’t want any of his loved ones to get hurt.

“Oh its fine, I’m...I’m over it now.” Judy replied obviously not wanting to get into any further, feeling a bit hurt and pissed off at the memory coming back to the front of her mind, but she took a deep breath and opted to just try and forget about it like she, Kevin and Harry have been doing for years already. 

“The whole nationalism thing my dad has is what preventing him from loving Kevin like a normal human being.” Harry added, aimlessly looking out of the window at the fields of grass and crops passing by.

_“Ok here is what me and Uncle Harry agree to stop to do a bit of a timeskip here. You probably don’t want to know every little detail and conversation we had in the car while traveling to my grandparents house.”_

_“Yeah trust me, most of the road trip was pretty fucking boring…..nothing but farms and small towns full of broken dreams, all we did was talk about shit, Judy asked me how LA was and Kevin kept saying my full first name every time I said fuck, which was about 5 times before he threaten me with implementing the swear jar idea. We alternated on what music we wanted to listen to; country music, rock and Christian rock. We all agreed on classic rock unanimously though.”_

_“I do want to share one little anecdote that I thought was funny, but my mom found annoying. Uncle Harry and my dad got into a 45 minute long debate about whether or not one of the Christian rock songs we listened too ripped off a riff of two from an AC/DC song.”_

_“Yeah, me and Kevin really got into it before Judy told us and I quote, ‘to bloody shut up and talk about something else.’ Jed by that point was napping.”_

_“But we’re not going to play that scene out for you, instead we’ll open up the scene scene on the first day of the family reunion, everyone was there, mingling and having fun. I was playing with some of the other kids around my age or younger while Uncle Harry was mingling around with the adults.”_

_“Yeah, enjoy….or don’t, I don’t care, but please enjoy anyways.”_

Harry was walking around trying his best to be friendly and get into a conversation, but lately all was happening was him drinking the alcohol offered there and feeling awkward as half of the people here he doesn’t remember seeing before. His brother and his family were the only ones outside of the Bracken family whom he didn’t feel awkward around and actually recognized. He had a good small talk with them before they went off to say hello to other family members.

Eventually however Harry got into the flow of the party and actually found someone to chat too, namely another cousin of his that shared his experience of living in LA, and still lives there as it turned out. The guy recognized him from the news about the whole Harlan Dexter case he and Perry did. They ended up exchanging phone numbers and making plans to hang out more when they were back in LA so Harry did felt pleasantly surprised by that. Maybe this family get together party thing will be alright enough after all, at least his hopes nothing to bad would come out of it, but he still would rather be anywhere but here. 

Maybe the reason he was feeling alright about this whole thing he realized was he didn’t see any signs of his parents showing all throughout the day and into the night. Harry was currently walking around the farm with Judy and Kevin as Kevin wanted to show his family a spot on the farm he would use to go to and look up at the stars sometimes on warm summer nights. Half the reason he took Kevin’s offer to come with was because he didn’t have anything better to do.

“Well I saw you mingling around today earlier,” Kevin commented as he faced Harry, “You’re having fun after all?”

“Well yeah relatively speaking provided the fact my parents haven’t showed up yet, which is also in direct proportion to your enjoyment of this.”

“I did asked my parents about that...apparently they haven’t responded back so they put them down as a maybe. Hope they come, I still want to talk to your dad,” Kevin said as he Harry stopped for a second in front of him while Judy and Jed continued walking a bit further before stopping to look up at the sky.

“I gotta be honest with you, I still think thats going to end in a disaster Kevin.” 

“Well I won’t know until I try right?”

“Yeah but Kevin I just don’t want you or Judy to get hurt.”

“I appreciate your concerns Harry, but I have a good feeling about this one, I feel like God has it in the cards for me to finally have a reconcilement with my uncle. I’ve forgiven him.”

Harry could see a different story written on his face, well not literally due to the nighttime making it hard to make out the details, but he could hear a bit of hesitation in his voice on the last part of the sentence, “Well I don’t want to sound harsh like Gay Perry would do, but...uh...um...” Harry said not wanting to sound like an asshole, the aftermath of what happened at the wedding still having obvious lingering effects on him. He also knew he wasn’t the only one not completely over what happened, it was plain to see once you thought about to even someone like him. Harry just signed and crossed his arms before just letting out what he was going to ask anyways, “If you claimed you forgiven him and been wanting to talk to him for years then how come you haven’t called him in the last 11 years Kev? You have his phone number..." 

The question Harry just posed had made Kevin freeze up in his spot as he tried to think of a good, honest answer to that. He was starting to feel like he was being a bit of a hypocrite at the time being, Harry was right he realizes. If he did claimed to have forgiven Harry's dad then he probably would’ve tried to set things right sooner. And he knew what was preventing him from calling him, the whole incident still left a lingering bitter taste enough that he doesn't want to deal with him even though he had plenty of times over the years to do so. He just didn't want to admit it out loud.

"I wasn't ready, and...now I am..." Kevin said simply, knowing Harry won't be completely convinced off that, even he wasn't completely convinced himself, but he did honestly felt like that maybe this encounter will have a good outcome.

"Liar." Harry said softly in a disbelieving tone, and no more was said after that on the matter due to Judy beckoning the boys over to watch the stars with her and Jed.

The next day everything was still proving uneventful, nothing to drama inducing happening and he felt like that was due to his dad not being there and getting himself into a drunken stupor, He was currently hanging around the refreshment and drinking some beer as he watch all the kids and teenagers there partake in some family bonding games. Harry personally thought it just served to make him feel like he was in a lame cliched, family movie.

After about 15 minutes minutes of watching other family members race through an obstacle and hearing other members cheer for them, he noticed Judy coming up to grab a beer, “Hey, you’re having fun?”

“Yep,” She replied as she opened up her beer and took a sip, “Everyone just seems nice here.”

“Thats good, I haven’t really talked to everybody here, but I did talked to that other cousin I met yesterday.”

“The one from L.A?”

“Yeah, turns out he once hired Perry for some boring case 2 years before I moved there..”

“Cool, so you’ve finally conceded defeat and having fun huh?” Judy teased while Harry just shrugged.

“Yeah I guess, this isn’t my kinda of party, but its alright. Helps that my dad not here.”

Judy nodded before she looked at him for a second before signing softly, “I’ll admit that helps my experience here too.”

“No argument here, everything tends to go smoothly whenever he’s being an embarrassment elsewhere,” Harry said as he took another drink while looking around at the animated crowd cheering before he faced Judy again, “I had to lie again about what I did in New York City to Aunt and Uncle Bracken again.” Harry confessed, Judy looking at him nice with a face that beckoning him to continue. She, Kevin, Harmony and Perry were pretty much the only ones that knew about his priors in the city.

“I felt like shit cause they’re really sweet, I actually forgot about how sweet they can be until they said hi to me earlier. I remember them spoiling me whenever they came to Embrey to visit us when I was a kid so yeah...I felt bad, but I didn’t want them to freak out and didn’t think they’ll understand why I had to steal.”

Judy nodded in understanding, “Yeah, they are sweet aren’t they and really nice. I got spoiled by one of my aunts and uncles too, but all of them were good too and my two younger brothers overall. We went over to Australia to visit them and my other family members when Jed was 4 and they got him and Kevin to try vegemite and...have you heard about it?”

“Its that salty stuff right?”

“Yeah...well Jed took to it, but Kevin didn’t like it.”

“Haha well I don’t blame him….tried it once back in NYC and bleh tasted like shit.” Harry chuckled at the end making a bit of a disgusted face which caused Judy to giggled.

“Not everyone likes it, My dad jokingly said that Jed passed the test to be a true Australian haha.”

Harry chuckled a bit before falling into a comfortable silence as they continued drinking their beers. Judy told Harry that she was going to look for Kevin just as Jed and a group of small kids came running up to him to ask him about showing them a few magic tricks. Turned out Jed told them that Harry could do magic tricks and the kids wanted him to do it now. 

“I hope you didn’t mind me telling them Uncle Harry.” Jed said after seeing the confused look on his face.

“Oh no its fine,” Harry reassured the teen before leaning in a bit so the kids won’t hear, “I have nothing better to do anyways.” He added honestly before he looked around quickly for something to do a trick with before Jed handed him a quarter.

After wowing the kids and the crowd of adults that since formed for about a half hour, he and Jed walked over to the front yard. Harry wanted to see what Kevin and Judy were up too while the teen headed towards where the other kids were hanging around, having already planned to go to the movies with them. Harry ended up watching the boys for a second as they got into a car and drove

He was planning on seeing what Kevin was up too and hanging around with him and Judy, but as life can be funny and an asshole at times, he noticed his parents car parked out on the side of the road across from the farmhouse and internally groaned. He could feel a sense of dread coming up in the pit of his stomach that nothing good was going to come out of it. At least from his dad, his mom more or less doesn’t seem to give a shit enough to reel him in and just rather let him spew whatever shit. He then heard the front door opening and saw Kevin and Judy storming out of the house towards the car.

Harry already had a small nagging feeling that his dad was involved in this, he wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. He then ran up to catch up with Kevin, stopping in front of him to get his attention while Judy got into the driver’s seat, “What did my dad do this time?”

“Upsetted my wife with his ignorant bullshit…” Kevin said simply and pointedly as he looked at Harry, obviously not in the mood to explain it right at that point, “Judy going to drop me off at a bar, you wanna join?”

“Yes.” Harry said as he got into the backseat of the car, part of him happy that he finally got a chance to at least take a break from the boring conversations he would overhear and cliched activities. Plus he could go for a drink right now to alleviate the boredom and numb the fact that his dad was there and already causing shit.

The three went back to the hotel they were staying at and Judy stayed behind, deciding to just watch some movies in the room to take her mind off what happened while the boys left to walk down a block to a nearby bar. Once there they walked up to the counter to order some whiskey as they sat down in silence for the first few minutes, just sipping their drinks before Kevin spoke up causing Harry to turn to his cousin.

“I’m feeling conflicted right now…” Kevin confessed softly before he took a generous sip before continuing on, “First sentence out of his mouth was asking me why the hell Judy was here, then he proceeded to spew his nationalistic bullshit right at her face and mine.” Kevin vented as he gave another sign, unsure of what to do now regarding his goal he was hoping to achieve this week.

“And let me guess, he already had a glass or two by the time he got there.” Harry deadpanned, not expecting any less from his dad, and he must be getting at least somewhat better with this observation stuff because by the way Kevin signed and then proceeded to quickly empty the glass like he was taking a bigger size shot told him that was most likely the case.

“Yeah...your mom explained how they stop to have a drink in town before going over there. Everything was going fine until he showed up….then everything went to shit.”

“That’s how the song usually plays out with him Kev.”

Kevin nodded somberly and softly as the bartender brought him a refill, Kevin took a soft breath before he spoke up again, “I’m just so confused Harry, a part of me wants to still talk to him and make things right between us, but another part is saying no don’t, its not worth it.”

Harry nodded softly in understanding as he took another drink from his glass, trying to put together a response that won’t come out as incoherent. He did feel bad for Kevin as he could see why he wanted to know the reason why his dad is hostile to him and make things right. Lord knows Harry tried too back in his early twenties and hell even his brother confronted him about his attitude towards him. After a huge shouting match one night Harry and his brother realized that their dad was just most likely going to stay an alcoholic asshole. Harry then moved in with his brother for a year or two in New York City before he fell in loved and moved out, leaving Harry to make it in the big city.

“I hate to burst your bubble,” Harry started in sincere voice as he looked up to face Kevin. “...but I don’t think he’s ever going to fucking change his ways or apologize to Judy for all the shit he said about her either.”

Kevin took a moment to look at Harry as he processed his answer and making sense of it before he spoke in a thoughtful tone, “So you’re saying it won’t be worth it trying to make amends with my uncle?”

“Well uh...do you feel like you still want to talk to him after all the shit earlier?”

“My gut say hell no.” Kevin said chuckling, having a clearer answer now. He felt like in this case with all the things he said and how he acted towards him and Judy ever since he started dating her, not really wanting to do anything with him outweighed the desire to have an uncle in his life. It only took a second of thinking to come up with a decision, “I feel more like wanting to punch him in the face for all the times he said those shitty things about my wife over the years.”

“There you go, now you know one of the many wonderful reasons why I don’t bother going to cliched get togethers,” Harry said, his sarcasm evident there for emphasis, “I suggest we pack up and get the fuck out of here.”

Harry finished his sentence just as Judy came walking into the bar, confessing to the two that she would much rather go home than deal with Kevin’s uncle. She apologized knowing how much Kevin was looking forward to this trip, but he shook his head and said its fine and that he felt the same way, “Harry just suggested it before you came in actually.” He said laughing.

“You sure? I know how much your family means to you and…”

“Its fine Judy, the man said awful stuff to you and I wouldn’t feel right going back knowing Harry’s dad is there after what he said today and in the past too..”

Judy smiled as the boys paid for their drinks and got up, “Alright I’ll call Jed and have them drop him off at the hotel.” 

_And that dear readers ends the story of the wonderful, oh so joyful experience of the Bracken/Lockhart family reunion that did nothing but reminded me of why the fuck I stay away from them. Nothing but a boring excuse to do bullshit family bonding activities while Dad gets drunk on vodka and scotch while he spews tiresome shit about things he doesn’t like. Though I admit I made a new friend with the guy from LA. And speaking of which Kevin pretty much avoids those things now. Thanks a lot dad.”_

_“We pretty much left for home the second day and Uncle Harry actually stayed a few more days with us before he went back to the party as per his words. Back to LA in case you’re wondering….”_

_“I had a hell of a lot more fun with Kevin and his family in comparison to the reunion.”_

_“He did. He met the rest of my friends as well as hung out with my mom and dad. He even got into an amusing debate one night with him about movies, content iand ratings. It came about cause Uncle Harry wanted to watch a movie that he thought was perfectly fine, but dad thought it was a little too violent.””_

_“I think your mom joined in too, telling us the differences being ratings in America and Australia,”_

_“Yeah, right it was pretty interesting to see them interact, I think he felt less awkward after Jackson mentioning he had an aunt in Embrey and ended up sharing stories about growing up there. Well I hope you enjoyed the ride and have a nice day.”_

_“Yes have a wonderful fanfuckingtastic day.”_

_“Uncle Harry!”_


End file.
